Letters: Expensive lawsuits hurt taxpayers

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Expensive lawsuits hurt taxpayers

$411,935.27 in legal fees to be paid by the taxpayers of Greene County in the ongoing case for the additional help of one full-time employee and one part-time employee in the Clerk and Master's Office whose combined salaries would be $32,000 per year should immediately be investigated, detailed and the results published in the newspaper for all to see and read.

This $411,935.27 would pay these employees' salaries for 13 years. This is outrageous. What is the hourly rate for a lawyer? How many lawyers are doing what? I have spoken with the Clerk and Master who helped me out with pursuing a matter. She is a very nice and helpful person. So, nothing personal when I say there is something wrong and improper when the chick can sue the hen or rooster or a minor can sue mommy and daddy for discontent.

That results in legal divorce where the minor can legally divorce the parents and go find happiness elsewhere, which I think this principle should be put into place in this and other cases. Same thing with the Unicoi County sheriff suing the mayor and county government. If one does not like where he or she works, move on! Our state legislators should do away with these harmful state mandates on our counties and let the counties set our own salaries and personnel policies. The state auditor needs to take a look at this. Thirteen years worth of salaries going to a law firm and for what? People, please rise up!

MARC BUSHGreeneville

Thanks, Obamanomics

I just received Phil Roe's June 2 email newsletter, and bless us if Trump and the Republicans haven't just accomplished another economic miracle.

Last evening Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's former communications director, provided a more honest picture. Shown two line graph charts, one measuring the steady upward job growth from Obama's inauguration till the present, and the other with a steady downward line showing the drop in unemployment percentages for the same period, without hesitation or hedging he said, yes, Obama made the right choices, starting at the critical time of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, with the monthly hemorrhaging of over 700,000 jobs. Obama achieved our nation's longest sustained period of job growth ever, a trend still gaining when Trump took office. Our King/Liar-in-Chief still claims he was handed the worst economy in history. Phil Roe doesn't say "No, Mr. President, that's not true," and I doubt if he ever will.

There has been no dramatic uptick in job growth or dramatic downturn in the unemployment rate since 2017, counter to what Phil Roe would have you believe. During Obama's eight years, after inheriting the necessity of truly heavy lifting, unemployment fell from 10 percent to 4.7 percent. It's fallen another 0.9 percent during the 17 months under Trump, right about normal since the financial crisis. The stock market did get positively drunk with Trump anticipation, but now we see fluctuations come and go.

It's good to celebrate when folks are doing well. It's also good to give credit where credit is due. Even the Mooch could. Why can't Phil Roe? And Marsha Blackburn? And Diane Black? But they'd have to be honest. And somehow the three tend not to mention that our poverty rate in Tennessee stands at 40-41 out of the 50 states.